Anti-abortion billboards aim to save mums 'mental anguish'

THE MACKAY branch of Cherish Life Queensland has commissioned two billboards to tell motorists, in blood-red lettering, that "80,000+ Aussies die every year from abortion".

Cherish Life Queensland Vice President Alan Baker said the advertisements were funded entirely by donations to the Mackay branch, which he believed came on the back of a bill currently before the Queensland parliament.

The Abortion Law Reform (Women's Right to Choose) Amendment Bill 2016, which sought to decriminalise abortions for non-medical reasons, was referred to a parliamentary committee at the end of May.

Mr Baker said the organisation was against the change, firsty because it didn't think it was right to kill an unborn baby but also because it thought mothers suffered ongoing mental anguish following abortions.

One of the billboards was near Bonsons Scrub Road and the other was near the Miclere-Farleigh Road, both off the Bruce Hwy north of Mackay.

They have been up about two weeks.

Mr Baker said the statistics stating 80,000 abortions occurred in Australia each year was an extrapolation of data collected in South Australia, as no national data was available.

This Cherish Life Queensland billboard is on the Bruce Hwy, north of Mackay.Photo: Emily SmithEmily Smith